The wolf and the warrior
by Ollsibub
Summary: Mulan is traveling through different kingdoms when an odd woman shows up, wanting to come with. It s the start of a deep friendship and many adventures to come. Hinting of, and maybe eventual RedWarrior


Chapter 1 – Where the journey begins

The foreign woman showed no hint of caving in and leaving Mulan alone. Blabbering on relentlessly for the whole walk between the villages of Hansburg and Waterwell, she kept talking about how she was practical to have around, being able to hunt and being skilled in fights. Mulan had done her best to merely ignore her after realizing that if she answered the eccentric woman with "no´s", and "go home´s", she´d only spur her on to keep up her attempts of persuasion. They were walking the long highroad, Mulan keeping track of any movements in the woods on their sides. All the while the red cloaked woman kept talking to deaf ears with a happy attitude, not bothered at all by Mulan´s discomfort of the situation and being set on ignoring her to the best of her extent.

"You know, I´ve been in the north as well, in the Nirdalic Kingdom. Most people die if they travel there without any knowledge about the terrain and how to find food. The trick is to either dig yourself a hole in the deep snow so the cold wind doesn´t get to you and huddle together to keep warm when you sleep. The caves are nest for the bears, you´re pretty much dead if you go into one"

"…" Mulan stared straight ahead, setting one foot ahead of the other in a determined pace on the road, looking forward to reach the capital. Maybe she could sleep at the inn and ditch this girl while she was sleeping. The unknown woman had all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere, hassling Mulan to let her come with. Mulan could sense how the woman would be a burden, and probably a crazy person after time revealed it. _God, is she planning on talking me to death?_

"Then, in the middle of the night, the Nordic deer's shows up to find food when all the carnivore´s asleep. That´s when you hunt, they´re easy to kill if you surprise them and take them down swiftly"

"…"

"I know all that there is about survival, I swear I´m useful to have around! Just give me a chance, _pleeease_?" she skipped ahead to walk backwards, walking in front of Mulan and seeking eye contact, puckering out her bottom lip slightly. Decreasing the distance between them as an attempt to force an answer out of Mulan, and make her unable to avoid looking at her.

_´Ugh, why does she have to use the puppy eyes technique…`_ Mulan felt how her barricade was slowly crumbling. She was becoming exhausted, and started thinking about actually letting this obnoxious woman come with her just to make her shut up.

Mulan was stubborn as a mule though, and swore to herself yet again not to give in on the honor of her family name. She merely gave the unknown woman in front of her a cheeky grin, and gave her a firm, short and teasingly sweet "_No_" as an attempt to piss the woman of and make her give up.

The woman sighed, and returned to walk beside the armor clad woman with the long beautiful black hair.

"I´m warm to sleep next to"

Mulan faltered, embarrassed by the woman´s crude outburst. "_Why_ would you even use that as argument?!"

The woman shrugged with a toothy smile. "What, I´m just saying how it is." Then she felt a whiff of Mulan´s embarrassment. She could literally smell it of the seemingly unshakable woman, and an evil grin immediately surfaced. It seems even the most solid of walls have a small crack somewhere. "_Besides_, I´m not like that towards just _anyone_. But I can warm your bed whenever you´d need me to"

Mulan almost tripped, but quickly regained her posture. She did her best as to not to show her flaming cheeks. Had this girl no common sense? "Have you no _shame_?!"

"What? Are you _sure_ you´re not getting the wrong idea here?" The woman grinned; her plan seemed to be succeeding, she only had to push the right buttons. "_Oh_, could it be you like me that much already?" she finished, wagging her eyebrows.

"You…!" Mulan got interrupted, as Red suddenly snapped her head to the side and let out a low growl in her throat, holding up her hand as signal for Mulan to quiet down.

"There´s someone hiding over there!" Red hissed, and suddenly a black clothed man erupted from one of the bushes and flew at Mulan with a gleaming sword in his hand, ready to stab it into her chest. Mulan quickly hopped back, deflected the man´s swing with her own sword still in its scabbard, raising it above her head in a circular motion and quickly bringing it down on his right shoulder and knocking him in the side of his head. As quick as he went down unconscious, two more jumped out of their hiding spots.

Mulan and the red cloaked woman nodded at each other, their eyes doing a silent agreement, and they both engaged one of the assassins' each.

Mulan and her enemy were fervently clashing their swords toward one another, the heavy sound of clinging metal echoing over and over as they dared not take their eyes of each other. Mulan could not see his face, only the eyes were visible, his entire body covered in black garments and a black hood. She saw both fear and blood thirst in his eyes; a drop of sweat went down the bridge of his nose as he swung his sword at her once again.

The woman with the red cloak and dark hair, gracefully dodged each swing her attacker sent her, merely using her footwork, and she could feel how she was slowly tiring him out as he became more and more desperate to cleave her with his sword, using as much speed and force he could muster. She was eyeing him, taking in how he moved and analyzing him as he was a book. As he swung his sword toward her stomach, she spun to the side and dodged the sword with ease, and punched him in the gut. He jumped back and gasped for breath, as he clenched the hilt of his sword. "_You fucking wench_" he growled, as he lunged at her again.

Mulan glanced to the side, worried of the woman. From the small look she could spare from her own fight, she saw the other seemed to manage and felt a relief, managing to regain her focus. She needed to finish this quick. As her foe thrust his sword toward her chest, she hopped to the side, leaving his sword to hit thin air between her arm and stomach, and jumped in to mimic the other woman's actions and hit him hard in his solar plexus with the hilt of her sword. He stumbled and bent over, and she made the process short and hit him hard in the backside of his head. As she was to turn around and go to aid her current sister in arms, an attacker that had hidden in the bushes jumped at her, knocking her to the ground and making her vision become black for a fraction of a second, she heard the clang of her sword as it landed a couple of feet away from her. As she looked up, the fourth assassin was standing over her, sword raised above his head with the pointy shining tip aiming down towards her throat.

Mulan´s pulse skyrocketed, her own heartbeats pulsating in her ears; she could already feel the blood taste in her mouth as he had his feet on her wrists leaving her unable to break free. She could only hear the words this is it, echoing in her head. Everything went into slow-motion as he raised the tip to bring it down and finish her. But then he froze. Mulan froze awaiting the blade that never came, only for him to fall backwards with the woman in the red cloak having stood behind him.

Mulan could only swallow where she laid, her torrent of fear of dying subsiding. The woman came to her and stretched out her hand for Mulan to take. She gently helped her up, and looked at her with a gentle smile. "_Told_ you I was convenient to have around."´

Mulan glanced to the third assassin Red had fought with, to find him also lying down on the ground.

"Indeed you did" Mulan breathed out, in awe of both having been in need of saving and this woman having actually saved her, and not the other way around. "I owe you my life."

"Naw, I wouldn´t go that far. But we _do_ make a good team" The woman said, giving her that toothy, wolfish smile once again.

"Indeed we do" Mulan chuckled slightly. _Maybe this mystery woman wasn´t so bad after all_. "How can I ever repay you this debt?"

"Let me travel with you. At least for a few weeks. That´s all I ask"

"Then so it shall be, _mrs_…"

"Ruby. You can call me Ruby"

"And my name is Mulan, Ruby" Mulan smiled, as they shook their hands.

"But no more of those crude propositions, alright?"

Ruby merely huffed in reply.

**I´ve tons of ideas for Mulan fanfics (she´s so cool), and I just had to get this one out there. I´ve already kinda planned roughly how the story will go if I do get around to continue this one, and I just hope I can follow through. The story is planned to be about Mulan and Red´s travel´s, Mulan getting hired for odd jobs here and there, as well as learning more about each other and getting a strong bond of companionship. And of course why Red so desperately needed to come with Mulan, as well as running into other OUAT- character´s here and there. I also like the idea of slow and hinting RedWarrior. Though I secretly prefer the ship name WolfWarrior ;) Because it sounds so badass**


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